Berggren breaks tie in third period, Blues defeat Jackets to end skid at three

ST. LOUIS -- Jonatan Berggren broke a tie at 9:33 of the third period, and the St. Louis Blues recovered for a 5-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Berggren put the Blues ahead 4-3 during a delayed penalty after he was tripped by Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier. Colton Parayko threw the puck to the net from below the goal line in front, where Jet Greaves robbed Mason McTavish, but Berggren was there to lift in the rebound from in tight.

“No, we’ll take a goal instead,” Berggren said when asked if he wanted the power-play opportunity or not. “Lucky bounce, but yeah, I think as a team we deserved the win. Lucky we got one.

“We were trying to skate a lot and I think we were doing a great job of that. ‘Pary’ went in around the net and made a play to ‘Mac’ and the puck just bounced to me. A little bit of luck, but yeah, I’ll take it.”

Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice, and Dylan Holloway had three assists for the Blues (2-2-1), who ended a three-game skid (0-2-1). Jordan Binnington made 20 saves.

“Our fans support every single home game,” Snuggerud said. “Both games these past three days they’ve been absolutely humming. To win a game like that and get them going with … a good second and third period, it’s good for the city.”

Valeri Nichushkin, Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger scored for the Blue Jackets (2-2-0), who defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in a shootout at home on Friday. Greaves made 22 saves.

“We came out pretty strong on a back-to-back and got away from our game,” Columbus forward Sean Monahan said. “We were not at our best and we’ve got to find a way to keep our foot on the gas, keep that pace and keep pushing with the lead we had.”

Nichushkin gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 16:10 of the first period. Erik Gudbranson drove down the left side of the ice and centered a puck off the side of the net into the slot, where Monahan pounced on it and his shot caught a piece of Nichushkin before going into the net.

Johnson made it 2-0 at 19:48 on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle into the top right corner.

The Blue Jackets outshot the Blues 10-4 in the first, but only managed 13 shots over the final two periods.

“The thought process got away from us,” Columbus coach Rick Bowness said, “and the intensity necessary left us. We were doing some things that hurt our hockey club at both sides of the ice. There were some terrible, mental mistakes and some bad intensity that we got out-battled. That just gave them a whole lot of life, which is really disappointing because of how we did play the first.”

Jake Neighbours cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:10 of the second period, whacking in the rebound from a Justin Barron slap shot.

Snuggerud tied it 2-2 at 9:02 on a backdoor tap-in. Philip Broberg cut through the left circle around Sillinger and found Snuggerud crashing the net after he got behind Zach Werenski.

“For him, he’s a really fast player,” Snuggerud said of Broberg. “He can beat defensemen wide. I think it’s either the back post play or the wraparound, both which he’s really good at. Drive the back post as best as he possibly can, that was a great play by him.”

Snuggerud put the Blues up 3-2 with his second goal of the game at 12:32, collecting a drop pass from Robert Thomas, and firing a wrister from the right circle in off the far post.

“I tried going low,” Snuggerud said. “There were like four guys there. It’s a good screen and just happened to sneak through. Sometimes those shots, you just don’t hear the boards and the puck doesn’t string out and goes in.”

Sillinger tied the game 3-3 at 6:51 of the third period from the slot after Binnington gave up a sharp-angle rebound off a Charlie Coyle shot.

After Berggren's goal, Pavel Buchnevich secured the 5-3 final with an empty-net goal at 19:17 of the third period.

NOTES: Holloway has seven points (one goal, six assists) in six career games against Columbus. ... Monahan played in his 900th NHL game. ... The Blue Jackets had won six straight games against the Blues, outscoring them 22-12.